The journalism watchdog group Reporters Without Borders on Friday called for the leaders of Russia and the United States to request a U.N. investigation into the killing of journalist Paul Klebnikov, The Associated Press reports.
The American, who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down on a Moscow street on July 9, 2004.
Two men were brought to trial on charges of carrying out the killing on behalf of a Chechen separatist who was the subject of a critical book written by Klebnikov, but were acquitted. The trial was dogged by criticism that prosecutors failed to pursue other lines of investigation in the case.
“At the end of a farce of a trial ... it is clear that justice even in such a high-profile case remains elusive in Russia,” the journalist group said. It called on President Vladimir Putin and President Bush “to ask the United Nations to carry out an independent investigation” into the killing.
On Thursday, the lawyer for Klebnikov’s family filed a complaint with the Russian Supreme Court charging that the judicial system was not cooperating with their requests for a new trial of the two men who were acquitted in May.
The complaint filed by lawyer Larisa Maslennikova also said that the Moscow court had not dealt with the case in a professional manner, charging that the presiding judge’s letters to Maslennikova contained “emotionally hurtful attacks” on the lawyer.
